I have Windows 7 64-bit Home Premium on my Acer netbook, with the latest vendor-supplied chipset/video drivers and such, as well as the latest Windows patches.

The Taskbar doesn't work properly; the last hovered-on application will stay "lit up", even if I'm in another app or everything is minimized.

I haven't been able to narrow the behaviour down to any specific causes, in terms of programs or anything. It really does seem to happen at random, with Windows Aero effects enabled or disabled (it makes no difference). Sometimes it does it for hours on end, then randomly, it will stop for a while, then start doing it again.

Has anyone else ran into this behaviour? I posted about it on another computer forum and got at least one person saying they have the same odd behaviour exhibited by their Windows 7 install.

Here is a screenshot of the behaviour:

Note that this happens with ANYTHING on the Taskbar, not just Firefox. It really is quite odd, and annoying...

Seems like you've discovered the elusive taskbar bug that has survived since Vista first rolled around. Some people have it, and some don't. Report it to Microsoft. They don't care. Matter of fact, it's even in 8, just search the forum for "Windows taskbar bug", and I'm sure you'll find PLENTY of subjects/topics about it. I have it too sometimes, and have just thought of it as a really annoying "feature", since Microsoft refuses to acknowledge it or fix it.

Seems like you've discovered the elusive taskbar bug that has survived since Vista first rolled around. Some people have it, and some don't. Report it to Microsoft. They don't care. Matter of fact, it's even in 8, just search the forum for "Windows taskbar bug", and I'm sure you'll find PLENTY of subjects/topics about it. I have it too sometimes, and have just thought of it as a really annoying "feature", since Microsoft refuses to acknowledge it or fix it.

Could we not like, take a full system report of everyone with this reported behaviour, and see what things (drivers, software) they share in common? Seems like a good place to start.

Could we not like, take a full system report of everyone with this reported behaviour, and see what things (drivers, software) they share in common? Seems like a good place to start.

Go right ahead, but I'm telling you, it's just a bug, but since you think I'm joking/ "Taking a full system report" or whatever, here you go. Have fun. I tried to tell you: http://www.neowin.ne...#entry593521370 Search, my friend. It'll help you tremendously on these here forums. Good luck, hope you solve it, because nobody has so far!

As stupid as it may sound, Microsoft refrains from fixing little bugs like these. For every bug they fix, they risk breaking something else. So unless there's a larger issue at hand, such as a crash or exploit, small bugs like these are considered not worth fixing and may never be fixed.

Right click on something like the explorer icon in the taskbar to bring up the jump list and without closing it. right click on the Start Orb and be amazed. 100% reproduceable.
Completely armless bug, but I think it's funny and amuse myself in thinking that Microsoft removed the Start Orb from W8 because of this bug.

As stupid as it may sound, Microsoft refrains from fixing little bugs like these. For every bug they fix, they risk breaking something else. So unless there's a larger issue at hand, such as a crash or exploit, small bugs like these are considered not worth fixing and may never be fixed.

I get that, the most extreme way I found to 'fix' it is to close explorer.exe, then reopening it, mostly I just restart my pc or ignore it, sometimes it'll display a dotted line type of box over the last item I opened on the desktop too, I don't think there's any real danger to your systen's stability other than the obvious annoyance it causes, or at least I've not noticed any of that sort of behaviour on my pc.
Something I remember, this was present in my version of XP too...

I get that, the most extreme way I found to 'fix' it is to close explorer.exe, then reopening it, mostly I just restart my pc or ignore it, sometimes it'll display a dotted line type of box over the last item I opened on the desktop too, I don't think there's any real danger to your systen's stability other than the obvious annoyance it causes, or at least I've not noticed any of that sort of behaviour on my pc.Something I remember, this was present in my version of XP too...

arrrg that was annoying on s2008 as well. and what's worse is sometimes if I dragged an icon or an object in general would be stuck on the screen till I rebooted! very annoying... what's funny is I had CELING CAT! of all things stuck on my screen!